Slick's mind
by Setrus
Summary: Episode 16 in the clone wars series got me fascinated with the mind of the clones. Slick was especially interesting, here I'm trying to show his mindset, and that he might not be as wrong as the clone wars episode makes him sound.


"I'll have someone relieve you in a few hours." Skywalker said, already his back turned to the clone as he marched towards the command bridge, no doubt already thinking about their next move as he was wont to do.

Slick rolled his eyes and settled for a leisured stance, knowing better than to stand in full attention like someone like Rex would do. So him, a sergeant...demoted to guard a storage space of droid 'prisoners', how quaint... Glancing back Slick noted the deactivated droids standing in neat rows, no doubt about to be sent to the lab guys to find more effective weapons against them...how they couldn't know everything there was about the droids was beyond Slick.

One droid was at the front though, painted yellow on the chest and head it was obviously one of rank, though it looked almost comical with both its legs cut off, its hands keeping it upright as it looked back at Slick with that impassive gaze of it. "What are you looking at?" Slick chuckled, turning back to look at the boring wall ahead of him, already feeling his mind begin to wander.

"At you of course." Came the synthetic reply.

Jumping in surprise Slick turned, finding the damaged droid glaring back at him. "What the...weren't you-"

"Not the brightest bulb in the place are you?" A surprising human chuckle escaped the machine.

"Look bub, deactivate or I'll blast your head off." Slick growled, raising his rifle and pushing it through the bars of the gate separating him from the droids, bringing the damaged droid in his cross-hairs. "Or don't...I'd love to blow one of you clankers apart right now."

"Ha! What a useless threat!" The droid laughed, once more surprising Slick. "You won't hurt me, you've been ordered to keep us in storage, you won't go against your orders."

Slick lowered his blaster, grimacing behind his helmet as he realised the droid was right. "Just...shut up." He turned, shoulders stiff as he prayed for some quiet.

Of course no god answered his call. "What a good _droid_..." He could hear the amusement in the droid's voice. "We're really quite alike you and I."

Slick grimaced, feeling as if his armour was filled with slime all of a sudden. "Don't be disgusting, we're nothing alike."

"Oh?" The droid chuckled. "We're both mass-produced, you look just like your brothers, as I do to mine...and we've both been programmed to fight in a war not our own. We're both tools of war."

"Don't you dare!" Slick whirled about and glared at the machine. "I have a name! I'm Slick! I'm human!"

"You have a serial number as I do." The droid replied, impassive. "That name of yours is nothing but a callsign, they called me Bonker...does that make me human as well?"

"This is ridiculous! I'm off flesh, you're just a droid, no sentience."

"Really? How many of those republic people you fight for view you as sentient? Besides, your flesh has been produced like my steel...who's to say either makes a superior being?"

Slick sighed, a hand coming up to slap his faceplate. "I can't believe I'm arguing with a clanker..."

"Call it a test of programming, yours against mine." The machine chuckled. "So far I'm winning...they really didn't program you with much but military matters did they? What a bleak existence...I can sympathize."

Slick's shoulders dropped, the droid's words digging into him deeper then he'd expected them to do. "Go to hell." He frowned, forcing himself to come up with something better to say. "Besides, you're really just a tool, you're not alive, what will you do when the war is over?"

`"Probably be deactivated and broken down for scraps." The droid replied, still sounding amused for some reason. "What will _you_ do?"

"What? Me? I'll...um..."

"You don't know right? Retired to some violent-filled planet as extra security? Sent on suicide missions until you die? Or perhaps you will be broken down too? Reduced to nothing but some acids? Food for the dogs perhaps?"

"What? They would never-"

"Oh _of_ _course_ not." The droid's voice was laced with sarcasm. "Because the republic has shown _such_ great care for its soldiers! What about that ageing program of yours? How long will you last? Will you die before you become a..._nuisance_?"

"Shut up!" Slick shook his head violently, taking a step back at the thoughts assailing him. "We fight for something grand! We fight for the republic! Democracy!"

"Ah yes, _democracy_." The droid laughed, a sound that was really getting on Slick's nerves by now. "The ability to choose your government and your fate...yet the separatists are not allowed to leave the republic? _They_ cannot choose their government all of a sudden?" Slick felt a sudden stab in his mind, as if something within him broke, no...it couldn't mean... "You are a soldier of the _oppressors_."

"No...you're...wrong?" Slick shook his head, taking a step back as he moved a hand to his head, feeling...odd.

"Is that an error message I'm detecting?" The droid chuckled. "Republic programming breaking no doubt...how does it _feel_?" Under his helmet Slick grimaced, a strange pressure building up within his skull, threatening to destroy him. "And what about you? Did you choose this fight? To become a warrior of the republic?"

"N...no." Slick's answer was but a whisper as he felt his knees weakening.

"Of course you didn't..._democracy_ huh?" The droid looked at him calmly, watching as the clone struggled with the growing headache. "You are a product of oppression, a tool, expendable...and programmed like me. A mere droid of the republic...obedient to the death." A chill went up Slick's spine, memories of his fallen comrades flickering past him. "And _believe_ me...you _will_ die."

Something broke.

"Shut up!" Slamming his shoulder into the bars Slick aimed his blaster at the impassive droid, eliciting nothing but a chuckle out of it. "Shut up! Shut up! _Shut up_!"

"Um...sergeant." Blinking Slick turned to see his squadmate Chopper stand by the now open door, a hand raised to rub the back of his head, a puzzled frown on his face. "What are you doing?"

Slick licked his lips, forcing himself to lower his blaster, somehow he managed to sound casual. "Heh, sorry there Chopper, just had an argument with one of these droids." He gestured for the impassive machine looking back at him.

"Erm...sir...the droid is deactivated."

"What? No it..." Pointing over at it Slick found himself looking at a decidedly deactivated droid. "..._isn't_?"


End file.
